It is quite clear that this story is not going to get done tonight, so for the third night in a row I capitulate to my writers block and go to bed.

            As a reporter you have to accept that ideas can pop up at the most inopportune times.  It is one of the drawbacks of the job.  Tonight for example, my epiphany came to me at precisely 3:53 in the morning as I shot out of my slumber and straight into a sitting position as if I had been awakened by a Mac truck barreling through my bedroom.  Normally, sudden spurts of inspiration were welcomed with open arms, but this is four o’clock in the morning we are talking about and I am a pretty big fan of my sleep.  But when you get an idea, especially one that wakes you out of a dead slumber, you have no choice but to grab it and run with it as fast as you can. 

            “She was having an affair with another woman!”  Why hadn’t I thought of this sooner?  It’s perfect!  It fits!  I log back onto my computer and begin typing; typing like my life depends on it.  Well I guess in a sense it does, because my career is at stake, and no job:  no food. No food: no life.  The headline reads:  Tate Carmichael Caught in Deadly Ménage a Trois.  Now I know what you’re thinking.  I can’t just write an article based on a hunch without any kind of facts.  Well you’re right, I can’t do that; this is just to give comb over something to salivate over while I investigate. 

I manage to type up the story and slip in a well earned hour of sleep before I am on my way back to the Channel 5 building.  That’s when I see it for the second day in a row.  The detail that brought her back to me.  The reason I cannot wipe the smile off my face.  The cause of my daydreams and my ‘thinking happy thoughts’. 

~

            “You are going to be so great!”  I kissed her cheek and ran my hands up and down her arms.  I was finally going to see Ashley play.  I was going to make up for the time in high school when I had failed her.  For so long she had been weird about me watching her perform and I think it all stemmed back to that night, when I was too inebriated to keep a simple promise.  Ever since that night, I think she had been afraid that I would let her down again, and that she would not be able to handle it.  But tonight was different; she actually wanted me to be there with her.  I had never pushed the issue and I think deep down she knew that it would never happen again, but I knew it was a fear she was going to have to overcome on her own.  Let down had been such a big part of her life and all I could do was prove to her that she could trust me.